Prospect Watch: Glasnow Struggles Through High Pitch Count, Two Homers From Willy Garcia

TOP OF THE SYSTEM

A look at how the current top 20 prospects did today. Note that this list doesn’t include players currently in the majors (Stolmy Pimentel #13). If a player is in the majors, he will be removed, everyone below him will be shifted up a spot, and a new player will be added to the bottom of the list. If a player is out for the season (Jameson Taillon #2, Clay Holmes #12), he will be removed and everyone below him will move up a spot. Removing these guys doesn’t mean they have lost prospect status. It is just an attempt to get 20 active prospects on the list. Rankings are from the 2014 Prospect Guide, and links on each name go to their Pirates Prospects player pages.

Game Notes: Jeff Locke got through six innings despite walking five batters and giving up three early runs, allowing him to pick up the win in Indianapolis’ 7-5 victory. All three runs allowed by Locke came in the second inning. He threw a total of 97 pitches, 58 for strikes. Locke was followed by Tyler Waldron, who had four strikeouts in 1.2 innings, though he also allowed two runs. Adam Wilk picked up the save by recording the final two outs. Matt Hague got the Indians on the board first with a two-run homer in the first inning. Chris Dickerson hit a solo homer in the second, his fourth of the season. He is hitting .351 this season, with 16 extra-base hits. Gregory Polanco drove in his 40th run of the season, tops in the International League.

Game Notes: A.J. Morris pitched great on Thursday morning and Willy Garcia powered the offense in a 7-3 win for Altoona. Morris has been as good as any pitcher in the Pirates system this year. He has a 1.43 ERA, 2.13 GO/AO ratio and a .179 BAA in 44 innings. Morris has picked up the win in each of his last five games. Garcia started the Altoona scoring with his sixth homer of the season, a solo shot leading off the third inning. In the sixth inning, Matt Curry hit his first home run of the season. Garcia came back in the eighth and added his second homer of the game, a three-run shot. Alen Hanson left the game due to a headache after batting in the bottom of the fifth inning. He was in a collision yesterday with Mel Rojas Jr. that had both players on the ground for a short time.

Game Notes: Tyler Glasnow had a disappointing overall game, but the Marauders won in it on a two-run single with two outs in the bottom of the ninth. After collecting seven hits and two walks without scoring a run in the first eight innings, Jacob Stallings finally had a clutch hit, driving home Josh Bell and Eric Wood for the walk-off win.

Glasnow had control issues in the first inning, allowing two walks and needing 30 pitches to get through the inning. He threw 16 pitches for strikes and struck out two, including a bases loaded strikeout to end the inning, which kept Daytona off the board. Glasnow was throwing a lot of change-ups early, a pitch that he needs to work on because it’s nowhere near as good as his fastball or curve. In the second inning, he allowed a lead-off triple that scored on a sacrifice fly from the next batter. Glasnow was helped early on by strong infield defense from Walker Gourley and Max Moroff, both of whom made diving plays to rob hits.

In the third, Glasnow got out of the inning on 15 pitches thanks to two runners getting thrown out on the bases. He struck out the side in the fourth inning, but also allowed two hits and ran his pitch count to 81, of which 53 went for strikes. That high pitch count ended his night early. He really settled down with his command after the first inning, but he was still giving up hits and some other hard hit balls. Thomas Harlan followed Glasnow and threw four shutout innings. Jhondaniel Medina picked up the win with a scoreless ninth.

Game Notes: Reese McGuire extended his hitting streak to 14 games. In his first game back from the disabled list, Edwin Espinal homered, doubled and drew a walk. West Virginia hitters had 10 walks and 13 strikeouts. Wyatt Mathisen reached base four times. JaCoby Jones stole his 11th base of the season. He also struck out four times in the game. Cody Dickson had his shortest outing as a pro, lasting just 1.1 innings. He gave up a career-high nine runs and for just the second time in 23 starts, he allowed two homers in a game. Five of the runs were unearned, but he still allowed seven hits and three walks while recording just four outs. Felipe Gonzalez threw the last four innings for West Virginia and he was perfect, retiring all 12 batters he faced, four by strikeout.

John Dreker

John was born in Kearny, NJ, hometown of the 2B for the Pirates 1909 World Championship team, Dots Miller. In fact they have some of the same relatives in common, so it was only natural for him to become a lifelong Pirates fan. Before joining Pirates Prospects in July 2010, John had written numerous articles on the history of baseball while also releasing his own book and co-authoring another on the history of the game. He writes a weekly article on Pirates history for the site, has already interviewed many of the current minor leaguers with many more on the way and follows the foreign minor league teams very closely for the site. John also provides in person game reports of the West Virginia Power and Altoona Curve.

Just because a LH starter can’t get out of the 2nd inning does not mean you give up on him. I mean, just the other night, Wandy did not get out of the second inn ….oops.

smurph

Is it time to remove Dickson’s name from the top 20 prospect list? I would be OK if he is the PTBNL, as the Pirates have more pitching depth than position depth in the minors.

Lee Young

I sure hope Glasnow’s control problems have been due to his working on his changeup.

Speaking of control, Jeff Locke needs improve his before he comes back up.

deacs

There’s probably something unnatural about being told to throw pitches against your instincts like forcing a changeup or 20 straight fastballs to improve command so the results don’t always match the real talent (not to say that’s exactly what goes on). That being said I’m much more interested in the finished product than the path and if fastball command or forcing a changeup to get him that thrid plus pitch gets him to a frontline starter I have zero problem with this.